The Influence of Terrorist Attacks on the Agendas of Eurosceptic Right-Wing Parties

Table of Contents

  • Background
  • What is Euroscepticism?
  • Relevant Policy Areas
  • Rassemblement National as Case Study
  • Text Analysis: How did Discourses Change?
  • Conclusion

Background

In the modern age, the world has seen the finalization of terrorist attacks

More specifically, in the past decade, the European Union suffered…

  • 17 attacks in 2015
  • 33 attacks in 2017
  • 24 attacks in 2018

Graph 1 Graph 2

These attacks affected both European citizens and political parties, which often hold the Union accountable, leading to increasing levels of Euroscepticism

But what is exactly Euroscepticism?

Sentiment of doubt and distrust towards the European Union and its policies

Can be divided into Hard and Soft Euroscepticism:

  • Hard: opposition towards all areas of the EU
  • Soft: opposition relates only to specific areas

Is it a new Phenomenon?

The first examples of Euroscepticism date back to the process of European integration in the 1950s

Prominent examples:

  • British PM Margaret Thatcher
  • EU enlargement in the 1990s
  • Ratification of the Maastricht Treaty and the introduction of the common currency

What are the Main Drivers of Euroscepticism Nowadays?

  • 2008 Financial Crisis
  • 2015 Immigration Crisis
  • COVID Pandemic
  • War in Ukraine

What are Citizens’ attitudes towards the EU?

Before 2008: 52% of European Citizens had a positive attitude towards the EU

In 2014: The percentage dropped to 31%

What are the main Areas of Concern?

  • Immigration (40% in 2018)
  • Terrorism (19%)
  • Financial Crisis (18%)

Freedom of Movement

2008-2012: 6.6 million citizens moved across States

Guaranteed between borders for people, goods, capital, labor, and services

Ensures equal access to labor market and profitable working conditions

Article 45(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the Union

Article 45(1)

Every citizen of the Union has the right to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States

Concerns about the Freedom of Movement

  • May lead to illegal immigration

  • Decrease of working Standards

  • What if a foreign citizen becomes a threat to the nation or a concern for social assistance services?

Schengen Agreement

Established in 1985

Abolishes border controls on goods and on people

States can temporarily re-establish controls, as asked by many States in 2015-2016

How is Migration Perceived by European Citizens?

  • Negative opinions about refugees and asylum seekers
  • 6% of German respondents expressed anger, and 9% fear
  • Disruption of refugee accommodations
  • Discrimination in the labor market

Case Study: the Rassemblement National

  • Main French Right-wing Party

  • Gained importance in the 2010s under the guidance of Marine Le Pen (34% of consensus)

  • EU seen as a threat for domestic jurisdiction and democracy

  • France should have its legislative economic, territorial, and monetary sovereignty restored

  • Calls for the abolition of the Schengen Agreement

Paris 2015 Terrorist Attacks

How did this affect RN?

  • Delaying in building mosques
  • Ban on full-length swimwear for women
  • Proposal of a charter against the admission of asylum seekers

RN Political Discourses

The Impact on French Political Discourse

Conclusions

Terrorist attacks carried out in the EU had an extensive impact on political discourses of Eurosceptic Right-wing parties, especially of Rassemblement National

In Particular…

  • In the time period 2010-2022, topics most addressed in the French Parliament concerned security and the word French
  • After the finalization of the Paris Attack, it is possible to observe a spike of the word terrorism in French political discourse

Methods Used for Text Analysis

  • Collection of relevant articles and speeches

  • Analysis of a dataframe for Rassemblement National

  • Performing LDAs and creation of graphs to display the most used terminology for both parties

Difficulties in Conducting the Research

  • Lack of relevant dataframes
  • Lack of information about attacks
  • Difficulty in establishing the impact on policies

Questions for Further Assessment

  • How is Immigration towards the EU going to unravel in the next few years, given the situation in the Middle East?
  • Is the RN going to gain more support?
  • Is the EU going to be composed of more Right-wing members?
  • Is the EU going to be more cohesive or more divided?

Thank You for Your Attention! Do you have any Questions?

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